Tonight was interesting. It seems that each of the Prius' "problems" dug me into a little hole.

First, I was trying to find a destination that, naturally was not placed correctly on the NAV. I typed in the address and then got lost when it was not at the target.

After cruising around for a bit and trying to dissect the map onscreen, I felt an urge to make a U-turn. I just happened to be on a one-lane (each way) road. Now, the Prius' turning radius may be magnificent, but perhaps I was a bit audacious. A small grass ditch was happy to meet my car on the other side of hte road.

Immediately after coming to a stop, the forward acceleration seemed to have given out. I even floored it, but to no avail. The car did not respond. This, I thought, must have been traction control (?), though I thought it odd to act like this. I almost thought I wouldn't be able to back out, but surprisingly enough, reverse worked fine. I made a very interesting 3-point turn in the end.

Now on the road but still not knowing where I was, I attempted to find my way back onto the proper road, but the nav has no option for this. It would only search for an "intersection," but the two roads that I believe connected did not show up. There *should* be an option to find the nearest path to any road. That would be great.

In the end, I used common sense (read that part with a sarcastic tone) and decided to head North on the road of choice rather than South, even though the address was # S. Road. I admit, it wasn't the Prius' fault this time, but rather Orlando's. Why in the world was my destination on the North side?

All's well that ends well, and I got where I needed to go, but I was indeed 45 minutes late. And to think I could have avoided all this if the NAV had been accurate... :blink:

 

Yeah - I gotta say I am pretty miffed with the quality of the info on the Nav system. My particular area seems to be on the order of at least 5 years out of date - though some items are strangely included.

Some of the aggravating things I have are:

My street appears to be numbered backward - a feature it has not had for at least 7 years.

My route to work has a stretch of road I have been driving for over 3 years - and does not look new, but is not included AT ALL on the map -= the road up to it ends and I travel on empty space for 1/4 mile.

And my favourite: The dealership where I bought the car is incorrectly placed about 2 miles away from it's actual location - and they have been there over 14 years!

There are many more. Suffice it to say, I am glad I spent my formative years doing auto rallyes. That kind of thing improves your navagation skills admirably!

Jack

 

Amen. Of course, we've heard rumors that Toyota may offer replacement DVDs during the first quarter, but that has yet to be seen. They may very well demand a fee for such a replacement -- I doubt we'd be thrilled. The disk is in no way useless, but I honesly feel as if it defeats its own purpose: I can't trust it. I use backup paper directions!

 

Eeeewwww...!! Paper?

My wife wonders why I have the thing navigate me home all the time - she doesn't understand I am learning it's quirks!

J

 

Yes, paper. Makes real sense, right? Wrong!